Businesses, municipalities don't save electricity, cautions suspension of subsidies

Republika Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti and Economy Minister Artane Rizvanolli made a news conference, said they managed the energy crisis well, always subsidising energy bills. Until he figures how many citizens have saved.

“in the course of 2022, we have separated from the Republic of Kosovo budget over 85m euros to eliminate obstacles, difficulties, which our citizens and businesses face this major crisis. With the subsidisation of energy bills for all since February of this year, we have been able to avoid increasing the price of energy for the family, municipalities and public institutions that consume 800 kWh. ...so helping businesses in a period of recovery after pandemic, enabling energy prices severalfold cheaper than other businesses in the region. ...with the additional subsidy of energy savings since September alone for families that reduce energy consumption we have helped over 161 thousand families in September and over 212 thousand families in October. So the number of people saving months after month has increased. We have rewarded those who save, and the reward is double the savings, so there is no reduction in the bills. With these measures, we have balanced the need to protect citizens from rising energy prices and always complying with the energy strategy... As a result of these measures and citizens' co-operation, we have managed to reduce electricity consumption above 8% compared to last year. In particular, we have reduced consumption from households, even by 15% in November, compared to November 2021. This decrease is especially to be estimated as it comes after a five-year period of annual growth to over 10% in the past years”, Kurti said, adding that they helped 7400 families finance 40-90% of the equipment value, enabling them to keep their homes warmer, spending up to 60-80% less electricity, which also helps them benefit from their savings subsidies.

According to him, during this month they have seen that a megawatt is more than 500 euros, which is more than 8 times what citizens pay.

The following several months, especially January and February, will be the most critical times where temperatures drop and prices on European markets raise even more, so dear citizens, each of you is asked to continue and intensify energy savings in the coming months. While municipalities and businesses that we have unfortunately not seen such a savings level, we beg them to step up efforts in this direction, on the contrary subsidies from the state budget for municipal businesses will not take place in the future. Dear citizens we as governments will continue to do everything we can to ease the impact of the crisis and facilitate your confronting it, we are together in this confrontation, so from here they are appealing and encouraging to continue saving electricity”, he said.

Economy Minister Artane Rizvanolli spoke about projects that were implemented this year and will continue. According to her, efficiency measures have been implemented in 38 buildings by the Kosovar Fund for energy efficiency, enabling savings of over 60 per cent of energy. It also cited investments from the Milenium Foundation, the MCC project, in over 900 residential units.

“Next year 49m euros will be spent on efficiency, which is more than all Kosovo efficiency projects implemented so far. During this year we have provided 405m euros for the energy sector, for capital investments and for facing citizens with the crisis... for the next year only from projects we have already planned we expect the officialisation of over 200m euros, new energy investment deals, of which 63 million grants, while over 70 million from the private sector through the first solar energy auction. So with all these new investments, with the energy strategy, with the law for renewable energy sources already in public consultation, with the regional integration package adopted along with the energy community ministers on December 15th, we are setting the foundations of a much richer, decentralised and integrated modern energy sector in the European regional market”, he said.

Rizvanolli also appealed to citizens, as the following months are expected to be an energy crisis in Europe.